Slashdot Mirror


Digital Clock as Thin as Paper

Elitist_Phoenix writes "Citizen Watch has created a clock that is Paper thin! This unique design is enabled by E Ink Imaging Film. In addition to the fact that no backlighting is required, the display also has an inherently stable memory effect which requires no power to maintain an image - both of which drastically increase the battery life. The result is 1/100 the power consumption of traditional display options. Citizen Watch Co. and T.I.C.-Citizen Co. have not yet announced a launch date for this product, but it is expected to be commercialized in Japan in 2005."

52 of 296 comments (clear)

  1. Woohoo! by kc32 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now I can lose my watch that much easier!

    1. Re:Woohoo! by hyc · · Score: 2, Insightful

      This is a wall clock, not a wrist watch. It is 1 meter wide.

      http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20050 616/105862/

      For a clock like this the electronics are still brain-dead simple because the digits are still only seven segments each. But they surely can't be far behind with a 1-meter wide high resolution flat screen monitor. Now *that* would be seriously cool, with the 180 degree viewing angle and all the other goodies. And if they put it in a flexible mount, you could just roll it up into a poster tube to carry it around with you. No more lugging around bulky "compact" LCD projectors to do presentations, just unroll a several-meter-wide screen and hang it on a wall. This E-ink is some seriously cool stuff.

      --
      -- *My* journal is more interesting than *yours*...
  2. Neat! by mister_llah · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I wonder if they will wind up putting little clocks into notebooks... that'd be really cool, I wouldn't have to have a watch anymore!

    (I hate them, they rub on my wrist when I try to type)

    I 3 technology *swoon*

    --
    MoM++ - A Classic Expanded - [Master of Magic 1.5]
    http://mompp.sourceforge.net/
    1. Re:Neat! by Rii · · Score: 3, Funny

      Well, why not get this grafted into your arm? Just look at your wrist and see the time.

      Unfortunately, this could lead to your damnation if you put it on the back of your right hand and you're alive during the end times and you're not a christian before the rapture and it says 6:66 because.. uh... the antichrist likes metric time?

    2. Re:Neat! by LordEd · · Score: 4, Funny
      ...wind up putting little clocks into notebooks...
      ...they rub on my wrist when I try to type

      are we talking notebook computers? Isn't there already a little clock on the screen in the lower-right corner (in both windows and linux)?

    3. Re:Neat! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      My powerbook has a clock in the UPPER-right corner. That's how I know it's better than windows.

    4. Re:Neat! by pyrrhonist · · Score: 2, Funny
      So does my Gnome...

      Where did you find a Gnome with a built-in clock?

      --
      Show me on the doll where his noodly appendage touched you.
    5. Re:Neat! by fbjon · · Score: 2, Funny

      My Gnome sent me a post card from Guatemala, and it clearly is wearing a wristwatch in the picture.

      --
      True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
    6. Re:Neat! by Froze · · Score: 2, Informative

      $ man -k vcstime
      vcstime (1) - Show time in upper right hand corner of the console screen

      Now you don't have to feel left out.

      --
      -- The morphemes of your disquisition are ascertainable, but they have eschewed an ambit of transpicuous exposition.
  3. Wow... by chriswaclawik · · Score: 5, Funny

    I can't wait to see when these same guys make a single sheet of paper as thick as a digital clock! It would be sweet. I don't think I see many uses for it though...

    --
    A guy walks into a bar... well, I forgot the joke, but the punchline is that he's an alcoholic.
    1. Re:Wow... by pete-classic · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's in the works. I dug up a shot of an enginering prototype

      Someone also seems to be working on a clock that's made from a piece of paper that's as thick as a clock

      I hope this helps.

      -Peter

    2. Re:Wow... by EvilMidnightBomber · · Score: 4, Funny

      I can't wait to see when these same guys make a single sheet of paper as thick as a digital clock

      You have to go to Soviet Russia to buy those.

    3. Re:Wow... by Rhinobird · · Score: 2, Funny

      I imagined a beowulf cluster of these and it looked like a trapper keeper

      --
      If Mr. Edison had thought smarter he wouldn't sweat as much. --Nikola Tesla
  4. In other news... by nxtr · · Score: 5, Funny

    Paper-thin redefined as cardboard-thick!

    1. Re:In other news... by serutan · · Score: 3, Funny

      Maybe it's actually "wafer-thin" as in mints.

  5. Re:Nice fuckin' slashvertisement, Zonk! by Saeed+al-Sahaf · · Score: 2, Insightful
    It would be nice to see some less commercial info on this technology, maybe a white paper or something, whatever... But the technology is interesting.

    But you, sir, are always free to submit stories you think are more "newsworthy". There's a link to the left...

    --
    "Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
  6. Best ever by Ceirren · · Score: 5, Funny

    This could make the best t shirt ever. Of course you could probably never wash it, but who cares if you smell. You'd be too pimpin for people to complain.

    1. Re:Best ever by NanoGator · · Score: 4, Funny

      "This could make the best t shirt ever. Of course you could probably never wash it, but who cares if you smell. You'd be too pimpin for people to complain."

      Sounds like the perfect Think Geek product!

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    2. Re:Best ever by Carthag · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Think of the possibilities. How about a shirt with a USB port & flash memory so you could put all kinds of crazy pics on your shirt. Or possibly some sort of scripting language for ever-changing fractals. Now that would be cool.

    3. Re:Best ever by NitsujTPU · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yes, it is; because that thing is horrific.

    4. Re:Best ever by No+Such+Agency · · Score: 2, Insightful

      How about a shirt with a USB port & flash memory so you could put all kinds of crazy pics on your shirt. Or possibly some sort of scripting language for ever-changing fractals.

      Considering the typical first uses of a new technology, I actually forsee people walking around with short porn videos looping on their shirts.

      --
      Freedom: "I won't!"
  7. Re:E-book by ciroknight · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...reasonably priced, non-DRM'd, long lasting battery...

    Pick two, then we'll talk.

    --
    "Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." G.W.Bush
  8. Cost by BrianGa · · Score: 2

    Anyone have any estimates as to the price of this clock?

  9. "Paper thin"? by killa62 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Another example of a paper thin watch is one showcased by Seiko around two months ago.

    linky: http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/clocks-and- watches/seikos-epaper-watch-prototype-039344.php

  10. Time to update an old saw by Chairboy · · Score: 2, Funny

    I guess we can accurately now say:
    Even a stopped Citizen ePaper clock is right twice a day.
    This assumes that it's on 12 hour mode, of course.

  11. Linky past the linky by nuntius · · Score: 3, Informative
  12. How about... by teutonic_leech · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ... wallpaper full of these things?

  13. Re:E-book by Lehk228 · · Score: 2, Funny

    sure, make it compatable with standard document types, Doc, PDF, plaintext, and html

    --
    Snowden and Manning are heroes.
  14. E Ink is much cooler than just this by TheGuruMan · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Although both the story and this post are blatant plugs for a proprietary technology, the stuff they use for this clock (E Ink) really is quite cool, and can be used in many other gadgets.

    For example they are building bendable 200dpi grayscale screens and some Xbox game boxes are using it to create an animated picture on the side of the box.

    I wonder how long it will be before these take over the world, and the sci-fi idea of every billboard and poster being animated becomes real? Maybe when the Pentium VI 10GHz Powerbook comes out, it'll have a screen that can be rolled up and put into your pocket?

    --
    Living in Perth, Australia? Come to our Slashdot Meetup
    1. Re:E Ink is much cooler than just this by Cap'n+Crax · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yes, this company (at eink.com) has a fairly amazing new product. I would love to invest in them, but they are a privately held company.

      It works like a sort of like a high-tech 'etch-a-sketch,' magnetic charged particles stick to the screen in either black or white (negative or positive charge) and STAY there until the image changes. So power is needed only for the image changes. This clock is the first example I have seen here on Slashdot, but Boing Boing recently showed an e-Book reader using this same tech. Sony branded, I believe.

      In my opinion, the e-Book use is the IDEAL use for this. I have never seen it in action, but from all reports, it looks and 'acts' like paper, easily readable, just black text on a white page. The sony device looked very interesting.

      Here, I found a bunch of pictures. Japan only so far, but what new tech isn't...

      GALLERY OF E-BOOK PICTURES

      --
      PK: 09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0
  15. Re:haha by kyle90 · · Score: 4, Informative

    I know I shouldn't respond to ACs, but I figured I should clear this up for anyone that happens to be reading. Electronic ink works by having microscopic charged spheres that are white on one side and black on the other. When an electric field is applied, the sphere flips over. But when the electric field is turned off, it stays how it is. So it only needs power when the image is changing.

    --
    Real_men_don't_need_spacebars.
  16. welp by cyrix · · Score: 3, Funny

    Expect Flava Flav to start his own line of clock suits with this technology. YYYEEEAAAHHH BBBOOOYYY!!!!!!

  17. Paperless Society by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This is the first major step to a digital newspapper. Walking around with a piece of paper that always has the lattest news (and or slashdot storys) would be convinient. Though it would acomplish the same task as a laptop a cheaper , low power consumption standalone , tangible papper would be an amazing consumer product. When the product makes it down to a reasonibly priced level(sub dollar) they will be used for memos buiness papers , homework. Merging this tecnology with touch screens is going to lead to a point where digital and tactile data merge. Where you can crumple up an email and toss it in the can. Send a copy of the sketch of the boss you scribbled on a sheet of digital paper and send it to everyone in the office. Magazines can have movies (XXX market get on that). Money could have a number that changes over time and can be checked against the bank for security, your identification can say your age not your birthdate, you would only have to buy one calender for the rest of your life. and board games could be replaced. This is a much bigger step to the vision of the future , a paperless society, then viewing it as a clock is making it out to be.

  18. Why Not... by Greyfox · · Score: 3, Funny

    Why not just staple it to yourself? Then it wouldn't get lost. And you wouldn't need a band. The benefits are many!

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

    1. Re:Why Not... by Hogwash+McFly · · Score: 5, Interesting

      About eight to ten years ago I remember reading a newspaper article that showed an ultra-thin LCD watch being inserted underneath a few layers of skin. The fact that it was only covered by a few layers meant that it was perfectly visible in normal conditions, like a tattoo. I also think that they said it would run off the body's natural energy.

      As a result, you had a digital watch underneath your skin that was fully waterproof and never had to have batteries changed or anything. Just glance down at your wrist and BAM! God knows what they planned for daylight savings time and such.

      This was frickin' years and years ago. It's funny to think that nothing ever came of it.

      --
      Mother, do you think they'll like this sig?
    2. Re:Why Not... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Just glance down at your wrist and BAM!

      BAM!? What... you walk into a tree?

  19. How much by PakProtector · · Score: 2, Funny

    How much to have one of these implanted right underneath my skin on my inner left wrist running off of electricity generated from my blood sugar?

    I'd never need another watch.

    --

    Edward@Tomato - /home/Edward/ man woman
    man: no entry for woman in the manual.
    "Qua!?"

    1. Re:How much by I+don't+want+to+spen · · Score: 3, Insightful

      eTattoos!

      --
      Don't go to a brothel if you want to buy broth
  20. Re:When will we see this technology in PDAs? by AaronLawrence · · Score: 2, Informative

    Why do you think it looks terrible?

    According to this review it is great.

    --
    For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert. - Arthur C. Clarke
  21. Re:When will we see this technology in PDAs? by CyricZ · · Score: 2, Funny

    You're right, it wouldn't be too appealing to be eating breakfast, and then a gaping anus shows up on the cereal box. Or even worse, a penis infected with STDs and corn flakes stuck to the wounds.

    --
    Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
  22. Imagine... by Spy+der+Mann · · Score: 4, Funny

    A beowulf book of these. :)

    1. Re:Imagine... by PakProtector · · Score: 4, Funny

      I would go so far as to say that such a thing would be of epic proportions.

      --

      Edward@Tomato - /home/Edward/ man woman
      man: no entry for woman in the manual.
      "Qua!?"

  23. I doubt... by insignificant1 · · Score: 2, Informative

    that the entire clock is paper thin, but that just the display is paper thin. There is no mention of the crystal oscillator and other electronics being included in the package.

    And as far as a crystal goes, the size is, generally speaking, directly proportional to its stability. So if the crystal is included in the "paper-thin" clock, you can count on it losing or gaining a minute or more a day.

  24. As John Cleese would say: by d3m057h3n35 · · Score: 2, Funny

    "But sir, it is only wafer thin..."

  25. So, twenty-six years later.. by Zwets · · Score: 3, Funny

    So, twenty-six years after the publication of the Hitchhiker's Guide, and we still think digital clocks are a pretty neat idea.

    Humanity is doomed.

    --
    One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say. - Will Duran
  26. Digital watches are a neat idea by samkass · · Score: 2, Funny

    "[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy] is a galactic bestseller everywhere except on that backward planet Earth, where they still think digital watches are 'A pretty neat idea'.""

    --
    E pluribus unum
  27. Cool by Spacejock · · Score: 2, Funny

    I want a license plate made out of that stuff.

  28. Japan's next wacky invention by Ogemaniac · · Score: 2, Interesting

    How about a clock based on LED's that GLOWS in the DARK so you can see it at night? I seem to remember this technology in America, but apparently it has not made it across the pond. I have been looking since I moved here three months ago and have found nothing but battery-operated LCD and simple mechanical-arm clocks. Japan has this unnatural fixation with saving electricity, but this one particular issue drives me the battiest. Yes, an LCD clock uses less eletricity than an LED clock, though it is not obvious whether the use of batteries, which are very environmentally unfriendly, offsets the energy savings. Either way, in my case, they lose. I have set up a electric night-light to shine directly on my battery-powered mechanical clock so I can see what time it is when I wake up at three AM. I am sure this wastes a hundred times the electricity they have tried to force me to save. And don't get me started on the elevators in my building, which in their quixotic quest to save electricity, waste workers' time that I have calculated is roughly one hundred times as valuable, at minimum.

  29. This technology may be very interesting... by adamisklingon · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ...utilised in tatoos. Think about it. A tattoo that tells time, a tattoo that changes expression according to your mood, hell, even a tattoo that can become a computer interface.

  30. Wallpaper by empaler · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Was also my first thought - How about a wall with a living pattern? One that gradually changed and twisted randomly? Sweet.

  31. Re:haha by 9mind · · Score: 3, Informative
    As the IT manager of E Ink, I will inform you that most of our competitors technology works that way.... but ours does not.

    As not to divulge anything I shouldn't be, check here http://www.eink.com/technology/index.html for a simple diagram of how it works.

  32. Re:Nice fuckin' slashvertisement, Zonk! by db3d · · Score: 2, Informative

    Plastic Logic has been working on this technology with eInk. Here are some technical papers.

    --
    What if there were no hypothetical questions?